Machine for unraveling and winding yarn.



M. A. MUELLER.

MACHINE FOR UNRAVELING AND WINDING YARN.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 13, .912.

Patented Mar. 28, 1916.

3 SHEETSSHEET I.

WITNESSES:

NLA. MUELLER.

MACHINE FOR UNRAVELING AND WINDING YARN.

APPLICAHON FILED APR. 13, I912.

1,176,776. A Patent-ed Mar. 2%, 19m.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2 WITNESSES:

04% z/iza M. A. MUELLER.

MAC HNE FOR UNRAVELING AND WINDING YARN.

AFPLICAIION FILED APR. 13. 19\2.

1. 17@,776, Patented Mar. 2b, 1916.

3 SHEEIS SHEET 3. ,Z zgfi.

W A! A TTOR/VEY5 a citizen of the United States MAX ARTHUR MUELLER, OFBROOIiLYN, NEW YORK.

Specification of Letters Patent.

macnmn non. nnnsvnnme am; WINDING YARN.

Patented Mar. 2 8, 1916.

Application filed April 13, 1912. Serial No. 690,462.-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Max ARTHUR MUEILER, of America, and residing in theborough of Brooklyn, in

the 'county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Machines for Unraveling and Winding .Yarn, ofwhich the following isa specification.

- My Invention relates to improvements in :machines for unraveling andwinding'yarn and particularly to a machine adapted to unravel and spoolthe yarn from knit fabrics, the object of my invention being to provideapparatus for unraveling either flat or circular knit goods andsimultaneously spooling the same so that the yarn is not only recoveredbut is recovered in spools or bobbins adapted to be placed at once inknitting machines for reuse.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a machineembodying my invention in one form; Fig. 2 is a broken end elevation ofthemachine; Fig. 3 is a section on the line 22, Fig. 1; Fig. 4: is asection on the line 33, Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is an elevation and Fig. 6 asection on the line 6.6,"Fig. 5 of a detail of the drive mechanism; Fig.7 is a perspective of a detail; Fig. 8 is a perspective of a base platefor the bobbin; and Fi 9 isa perspective of the bobbin with base p ateattached.

The present machine is designed for the recovery of yarn from fabricwhich b reason of some defect therein, cannot be utilized for thepurpose for which it was made and consequently, unless the yarn isrecovered, must be discarded as waste. Waste ofthis character is oftenquite valuable, as for instance, in knit woolen sweaters-andmanufacturers commonly resort to. unraveling and spool'ing by hand inthis class of goods 1n order that the yarn may be reused. This has beenthe universal practice so far as I am aware in connection with flatgoods and the better classes of woolens, in which recovery of the yarnis consequently thernost important, are now commonly knit flat.Heretofore it has been practicallyimpossible to recover the yarn indouble lock knit goods even byuse of hand machines. In the presentmachine the yarn from such goods,

whether knit in flat or circular form, is recovered directly on bobbinsor reels. If more than a single strand of yarn is used in each knittedcourse, the various strands may be, and preferably are, separatelyrecovered. The winding mechanism comprises a lurality of rotary drawingelements ere shown as bobbin carriers 10, on the lower end of thespindle 11 of each of which is mounted a friction disk 12. A cooperatingdriving disk 13 radially adjustable on its spindle 14 across the face ofthe friction 'disk 12 is provided with a band pulley 15 and .a boss 16in which engages a fork from the shifting. lever 17, of which the radialing disk 13 to secure the desired speed of the bobbin carrier isregulated. The handle end of the lever 17 rests upon a cross bar 18notched at 19 to-receive the lever and hold the latter in adjustedposition. The driving band 20 passes frompulley 15 to pulley 21 which isloose on the main driving shaft 22,- but normally held in frictionalcontact with the juxtaposed clutch disk 23 fast on said shaft, by thelight controller rod 24, pivoted at 24?. The latter "acts upon thispulley 21 through an overbalanced lever 25 pivoted at 26 and engagingthe'boss 27 on the pulley with a fork 28 at one end, while the other andfree end 30 overlies and is supported by the rod 24. When thissupporting end of the rod 24, which is pivoted at 24 is lowered in amanner about to be described, the overweighted end 30 of the lever 25tends to follow it, with the result that the pulley 21 is shifted on theshaft 22 out of its frictional engagement with the clutch disk 23' andthe drive of the bobbin thus halted. The pulley 21 is preferablyprovided with an annulus of friction material 31 on the face adjacentthe face of the clutch disk 23 in -order to insure a prompt andeflicient drive therefrom.

. The yarn from the defective piece of goods 32, which is hung at 29 instationary position during the operation of the machine, is passeddirectly from the goods toa drag device 33, thence over a stationaryguide 34 to an eye in the upper end of a light stop rod 35 jointed atits lower end to the end of the controller rod 24, and

pivoted at 18, by means i adjustment of the dri'v bar.

finally to the guide finger 36 of the builder bar 37 which takes itsmotion from cams 38 on the auxiliary shaft 39 geared at 40 to the maindriving shaft 22. The builder motion is imparted to the builder bar 37through the rods a on which the bar is supported .from the ends of therods 72 pivoted at b and carrying at their opposite ends rollers 12 uponwhlch rest the endsofrods c pivoted at 0' and bearing through rollers aon the peripheries of the cams 38, against which they are held by theweight of the building The drag device in the form shown comprises aseries of vertical rods 41 on which slide weighted curls 42 engaged bythe yarn. When the piece of goods 32 is knit with several yarns thelatter are preferably at once separated as they leave the goods andpassed to independent drag curls 42 so that each of the latter acts upona separate strand of yarn. Each strand is then separately passed overthe guide 34, threaded through the eye of its own stop rod 35 and woundon a separate bobbin 43, the speed of which is independently controlledas above explained.

The weight of the drag curl may be varied with the strength of the yarnin the piece. 32,; but in any event it issuch that should the yarn becaught in the piece (as for instance when turning the corner at one sideof a piece of flat goods) the drag will rise on the rod 41 before thetension on the yarn becomes suflicient to raise the stog rod 35 and haltthe drive. The continue I pull upon the yarn-during this rise of thedrag, accompanied by a certain amount of resulting vibration of the thinrod, is sulficient in most instances to free the yarn at the turn, sothat the winding proceeds without interruption. Should the tensionbecome suflicient to lift the long end of the stop rod 35, the drive ofthe bobbin is halted by the drop of the overbalanced lever and resultantdeclutching of the friction pulley 21 from the clutch disk 23 before theyarn is broken. Brief attention by an attendant frees the yarn and thewind proceeds automatically by the return of the clutch to position uponthe release of the tension which has lifted the stop rod 35. Frequentlypersonal attention is not needed, since the other strands which may havebeen at another portion of the course, overtake the position of thehalted strand during the winding of the slack afforded by the drag curland the'difiiculty is automatically solved by the com bined action ofthe various strands. When unraveling circular knit goods very little orno interruption in the operation of the apparatus is experienced. Shouldthe tension wupon the strandaccidentally become sufiicient to breakthe'yarn, the bobbin of the.

particular broken strand spins harmlessly on until the machine as awhole is halted by the shifting of the main driving belt 44 by the lever45. The broken yarn may be then repaired and winding proceeded with.

The apparatus shown is merely an illustrative embodiment of myinvention. While primarily intended for unraveling knit goods, it may bereadily used for winding bobbins from skeins in which case a stand 46carrying the usual skein rollers 4748 may be placed. in feed position.When winding from skeins the yarn will ordinarily be so free that it maybe passed directly to the guide 34' instead of through thevdrag device,but the latter may be used if desired. A metal base plate 49 with radialpin engaging slot 50 and centering .hole 51 may be fastened on the Wornout carrier, means for driving the same, and

-means operatively engaged by the yarn between the drag devices and thebobbin for interrupting the drive upon excessive tension on the yarn. s

2. In an unraveling machine, a fabricsupport, a plurality of gravitydrag devices for freeing the yarn therefrom, a bobbin carrier, means fordriving the same, a clutch device in the driving mechanism, a long armedlever for opening the clutch and an operative connection between saidlever and the yarn for moving the lever to open the clutch uponexcessive tension on the yarn.

3. In an unraveling machine, a fabric support, a plurality of gravitydrag devices for freeing the yarn therefrom, vertical rods on which saiddrag devices freely slide to take up varying feed from the fabric whilemain taining the yarn tension substantially constant, a bobbin carrier,means for driving the same, and means operatively engaged by the yarnbetween the drag devices and the bobbin for interrupting the drive uponexcessive tension on the yarn.

4. In a machine of the type described, an

unraveling device comprising an upright= v1bratory rod and a dragsliding thereon V over which the yarn passes from the drag device,builder bar eyes to which the yarn passes from the guide, a plurality ofvertical spindles carrying winding bobbins fed from the eyes of thebuilder bar, friction clutches for driving said spindles, horizontallong arm levers controlling said clutches and means for suspending thelong arms of said levers from the yarn at a point between the builderbar and said stationary guide Wherei by said levers may be actuated bythe am to automatically halt the drive of the b0 bin on abnormal tensionon the yarn.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification, in thepresence of two subscribing Witnesses.

MAX ARTHUR MUELLER.

Witnesses:

CARL SCHMELZ, ALFRED BOEPPLE.

